PLANS to establish a new special school in Ross-on-Wye have been put forward by Herefordshire Council.

The local education authority is seeking views on whether the school should be established in the town after it identified the need to increase local specialist education provision for children with complex special educational needs in the county.

Statutory guidance states the council must consult on whether a new school should be established before it can move to any later process for seeking proposals about who might run the school.

Currently, existing special schools across the county are working with the council to support pupils above their commissioned numbers, and there is continuing demand for provision that can meet complex learning profiles locally.

The proposal is intended to help children have their needs met closer to home, reduce the need for out-of-area placements, reduce long journey times where possible, and strengthen the range of specialist provision available to families in Herefordshire.

The council has identified the former Children's Centre at the Ryefield Centre in Grammar School Close as the building is already in Herefordshire Council’s ownership.

It is hoped that the school would provide long-term special education for children aged four to 11 with significant, complex and pervasive special educational needs. Children would have cognitive abilities within the moderate learning difficulties range, including some children functioning below this range, and would also have other additional needs that together create a complex profile.

The appointed organisation would be involved in the design and specification of the interior of the building.

The council expects close and careful liaison with local residents, the ward councillor and other stakeholders from an early stage because of the school’s residential setting.

Send your views on whether the proposed school should be opened via Herefordshire Council’s consultation webpage or by email [email protected] by noon on October 2.

The council will consider responses to this consultation before deciding whether a new school should be established.